


put to the test

by LiveLaughLovex



Series: first to fight [7]
Category: The Code (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 11:14:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20692586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: Christmas Dinner hadn't even been served by the time Harper began mentally berating herself for daring to believe her parents might be any different this holiday season than they'd been the previous five, to feel any differently than they had since the moment their precious daughter chose to turn her back on them by serving her country.





	put to the test

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from Dolly Parton's "Family."

Her parents’ home was as large and intimidating as it’d always been. Harper sat in her rental car for longer than was necessary, simply staring at the front door from a distance. She didn’t want to go inside, to open herself up to the insults and snide remarks that surely awaited her. She couldn’t exactly turn around and head back for the airport either, though, so it was best to just get it over with as quickly as she could.

She drew in a deep breath before opening her door and climbing out of the car, her heels clicking against the concrete as she approached the stoop. She considered playing another waiting game when she reached the doorbell, but figured it was probably best to treat this as a bandage in need of pulling off. She pressed it once, mentally questioning her sanity all the while, and pasted on a smile when the door was opened by the maid exactly fifteen seconds later.

“Hello,” she greeted politely. “I’m here for dinner. My parents should be expecting me…”

“Oh, yes, of course,” the maid replied quickly, stepping back to allow Harper inside. “The others are gathered in the parlor,” the other woman informed her, offering to take her coat. “Your mother asked that you join them when you arrived.”

“Okay,” Harper agreed, smoothing down the hem of her maroon dress and heading in the direction the maid gestured. “Thank you.”

Her parents were seated on one of the sofas, drinks in hand and engaged in conversation with a friend of her father’s whose name she couldn’t recall at that precise moment. Her mother’s smile slipped slightly the second she came into their line of view, but she was quick to paste on another. It was much less genuine, of course, but Harper supposed she should take what she could get.

“Harper,” the older woman greeted civilly, standing from the sofa to offer her daughter a brief embrace. “I hope the traffic wasn’t too awful on the drive over. We saw on the news that there’d been an accident near your hotel.”

“Oh, well, I must’ve missed it.” Harper smiled in thanks when her father pressed a glass of red wine into her hands. “Hardly any traffic at all.”

“Well, that’s a relief. It looked quite gruesome.” Elaine Li reclaimed her seat. “Harper, you remember George and Celeste Han, don’t you? They’re old friends of ours.”

“Of course. Nice to see you again, George. Celeste.” Harper settled in the only remaining seat.

“Your mother was telling us you’ve moved to Virginia,” Celeste Han commented, taking a sip of her martini at the end of her sentence. “I spent a Christmas up there once, visiting my sister and her first husband. It was so bitterly cold, even back then. It must be nice to be here for the holidays instead of there.”

“She’ll only be here for the evening, actually,” her mother commented evenly, though there was a certain chill to her tone that hadn’t been there previously. “She and her partner have a case they must get back to first thing Friday.”

“Oh.” Celeste smiled politely. “Right, your mother was telling us about your work. You’re a lawyer for the military, yes?”

“I am,” Harper confirmed. “A prosecutor. I deal with cases of misconduct within the Corps, the ones not dealt with in civil courts.”

“Oh, that must be grueling work,” George commented. “We’d always expected that you’d follow in your parents’ footsteps, take over the firm when they retired.”

“So did I, for a while,” Harper admitted. “But I realized in college that litigation wasn’t my calling.”

“It was a shock to us, as you can imagine,” her mother chimed in, because God forbid Elaine Li ever let her daughter complete a thought herself in the presence of company. “But we are glad Harper’s found something that makes her happy.” That was it, no mentions of being in any way proud of the only child she’d brought into the world. Harper guessed she should be glad to get anything at all, even if it was a bold-faced lie.

“Well, I’m glad for you,” Celeste commented genuinely. “Do you enjoy your work?”

“I do, yes,” Harper replied, her smile sincere for the first time since she’d arrived. “I love the work, and the people I work with. It’s great.”

“She doesn’t get time off,” her mother mentioned. “This is the most we’ve seen of her in a while.”

“Well, you were there for my promotion ceremony,” Harper pointed out. “That was just a few weeks ago.”

“Yes, but we didn’t see much of you,” Elaine fired back coolly.

“No,” Harper agreed, sighing quietly. “I guess you didn’t.”

“Mrs. Li? Dinner’s ready,” the cook interrupted politely.

“Thank you, Olivia. We’ll be right in.” Her mother stood from her seat. “We should go ahead and eat, I suppose. We wouldn’t want Harper to miss her flight home.”

Harper bit down on her lip to hold back a response, mentally berating herself for thinking this holiday season would be any different than the previous five, and pasted on a smile so obviously fake she was pretty sure a stranger would’ve been able to see right through it.

Dinner was a silent affair, for the most part. It turned out George and her father were actually business partners in some way, or so it seemed, seeing as that was all they talked about. She simply sat there, commenting every so often on how good the meal was and doing her best to avoid her mother’s pointed looks.

“You haven’t spent time overseas recently, have you?” George commented about halfway through. “Things have been getting ugly in the Middle East.”

“She’s been there several times,” Elaine answered for her. “It’s close to giving her father and me ulcers, but I suppose it’s just part of the job description. Isn’t it, Harper?”

“We can’t always fly our witnesses home, Mother,” Harper replied. “So, yes, there are times we have to go to them. It’s not a constant thing, though. I’ve been a handful of times since I started.”

“Our clients come to us,” her father mentioned. “We don’t have to go to them.”

“Yes, well, your clients aren’t being shot at, Dad,” Harper returned tiredly. “They’re very rarely in life-and-death situations. Marines don’t always have those same luxuries.”

“I’m sure they don’t,” her father agreed. “I’m just telling you, if you ever want a more stable way of life, you’ll find one at the firm. That’s all I was saying.”

“I’m not working at the firm, Dad,” Harper informed him. “I don’t care about litigation.”

“Neither do we, some days,” George chuckled. “But it pays the bills.”

“It’s not just some days I don’t care about. It’s every day. I want to help people find justice. I have no interest in suing them. Nor do I have any interest in this conversation.” She chuckled humorlessly. “I should’ve known you two would try to pull something like this.”

“It’s dinner,” her mother replied sharply.

“No,” Harper shot back, “it’s not. It’s an ambush. And I’m not really interested in seeing how many angles you’re going to attack from, so I think I’m just going to go.”

“Harper,” Elaine muttered dangerously. “Sit. Down.”

“We’re just worried about you,” her father defended from the other end of the table. “You decide to go into military law, to give Bard back his ring – we’re worried you are going through some sort of quarter-life crisis. We’re just trying to look out for you.”

“No. You’re trying to control me. And it’s been lovely, sitting here and letting Mom rip me into shreds. She’s been so polite about it, really, but I think I’m wounded enough, so I’ll be going now. Please tell Olivia dinner was amazing.” She pushed away from her seat, nodding to their bewildered guests. “George. Celeste. Always nice to see you.”

“Harper,” her mother hissed angrily, following her to the front door. “You cannot leave. We have guests.”

“Yes, you do. And I have a flight to catch, so I should get back to my hotel and make sure it’s all packed up,” Harper retorted, opening the door to the coat closet. 

“You’re making mistake after mistake, and your father and I won’t sit silently and watch you do it. You’re ruining your life. Your engagement, your career – your future’s gone down the drain in a matter of months, and we won’t ignore that and smile simply because it’s Christmas.”

“I’m ruining the life you had planned for me, is what you mean. My life is fine.” Harper gathered her coat and purse. “I’ll call you when I land, all right? I… I love you,” she added, slipping out the front door without so much as another word. There wasn’t really anything left to say, was there?

-o-

_“It’s 7:08,” _Abe commented when she called him in the rental car on the way back to her hotel.

“I am aware,” Harper replied. “Dinner with my parents didn’t go as well as it probably could have.”

_“Ah. Your fault or theirs?” _he questioned knowingly.

“The blame can be shared,” she admitted with a sigh. “I just – I want to do something that’ll make them see that I’m not going through a crisis, or rebelling against their authority, I am just…”

_“Doing what you’ve been called upon to do?”_ her friend suggested helpfully. _“They’ll never understand that, Harper.” _

“I know.” Harper drew in a deep breath. “How’re things going with your mom?”

_“She’s baking cookies,”_ Abe informed her. _“I’ve been directed to share them with you. She thinks you could use the pick-me-up.” _

“Your mom’s baking me cookies?”

_“Yup,”_ Abe confirmed.

“_My_ mom has never baked me cookies.”

_“Come on, Harper, I’m sure that’s not true. She must’ve… okay, so maybe she had the cook bake you cookies,”_ Abe suggested. _“The sentiment’s still there, isn’t it?”_

“I guess.” Harper turned into her hotel’s parking lot. “I’m so tired,” she murmured. “I’m so, so tired of feeling like nothing I do will ever be enough for them. I’m happy. I’m successful. I’m not living under a bridge somewhere. Most nights, I even exist on something other than takeout. Why can’t that be enough to make them proud of me?”

_“I don’t know,”_ Abe returned honestly. _“But hey. I’m proud of you,”_ he told her seriously. _“You’re a good Marine, and you’re a good friend, and that’s more than enough for me.” _

“I know,” Harper sighed. “And letting you down would destroy me too, believe me, but it’s just…”

_“It’s different when it’s your parents. I know.” _

“Yeah.” Harper closed her eyes. “We’re all still getting together tomorrow afternoon, aren’t we?”

_“We are,”_ Abe confirmed. _“And my offer to pick you up at the airport is still good, just so you know.” _

“Abe, my flight leaves at ten o’clock. That’s one in the morning there.”

_“Yeah, which means you’ll get in at six. I’m usually up by then anyway. Plus, I don’t really believe in the safety of Ubers first thing in the morning. I don’t want to have to kill someone for killing you tomorrow.” _

“I can take care of myself, Abe.”

_“I know you can,”_ he assured her. _“But hey. Look at it this way. You’ll get ahold of your homemade cookies that much sooner.” _

“Bribing me with sugar? Well. One surefire way to make sure it’s effective, I guess,” Harper smirked. “You’ll be at the airport at six o’clock regardless of what I say right now, won’t you?”

_“I will. Just imagine the lecture in etiquette I’d get from Nona if I made you find your own ride home.” _

“Her maternal instincts have really kicked in over the past few weeks.” Harper shook her head. “Fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”

_“See you. Have a safe flight.” _

Harper climbed from the car, gathered her things from the backseat, and headed inside. It didn’t take long to make it upstairs to her room. She ordered in food, having missed out on most of dinner at her parents’ place, and then settled against the bed, hunting down a _Law & Order_ marathon on television and making herself comfortable atop the comforter.

Fifteen minutes after her salad and pasta arrived, there was another knock on the door. She glanced up, surprised, then reached for the remote, pausing the episode in the middle of its court scene and setting aside her plates to see who’d come to see her at eight-fifteen in the evening.

Her father stood in the hallway. “Hello, Harper,” he greeted formally.

“Hi, Dad,” she returned. “Is everything all right?”

“May I come in?” he questioned.

“Right. Yeah, of course,” she muttered, stepping back so he could enter and then closing the door behind them both. “I’m sorry I stormed out of dinner,” she apologized sheepishly. “I let my emotions get the best of me, and I shouldn’t have.”

“No. It’s not your fault,” he denied, waving away her apology. “Your mother and I – we worry about you, Harper, and I feel it doesn’t always come across the way we’d like it to. She wasn’t lying when she said we’re happy you’re happy. I suppose we just wish – we’d like you to be happy doing something nearer to us, where we know you’re safe.” He cleared his throat. “I saw you with your friends, at your promotion ceremony. You – you seemed so happy. It seemed to us – you fit there, Harper.”

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. “Yeah, I do.”

“You’re our daughter,” he sighed. “Our only child, and we’ve always had these visions, these dreams of what we wanted your life to be. But you – we never gave you any say in any of it.”

“Dad,” she protested, not knowing what else to say.

“I just – you’re my _daughter_,” he repeated, the word saying everything her father couldn’t. “I couldn’t let you leave thinking you were in any way a disappointment to me. I know there were some things I said at dinner that might make that hard to believe, but I truly mean it when I say I’m proud of you.”

Harper nodded once. “And Mom?” she questioned.

“Your mother will come around,” he promised. “She will. But even if she never does, even if she can never accept what you’ve chosen for yourself – I want you to know that I understand. And you will always be welcome home, Harper, no matter what you’re doing with your life.”

“Thanks, Dad,” she murmured, hugging him briefly. “Thank you,” she repeated, pulling away and wiping a lone tear from her cheek.

He nodded uncomfortably. “I should let you get back to packing,” he commented, clearing his throat. “Have a safe flight.”

“I will,” she promised, walking him to the door. “Dad?” she called once he’d made his way out into the hallway, mustering up a smile when he turned around. “Merry Christmas.”

He returned her smile with one of his own. “Merry Christmas,” he returned.

And it really was proof that things were looking up for the Li family, the fact that, for the first time in a long time, the words didn’t feel like a lie.

**Author's Note:**

> We never saw Harper's parents on the show, so this is based entirely on the few things that were said about them during the series. It seemed to me her relationship with them was rather tense, so I pulled a lot from other tense parent/child relationships we've seen on TV. I hope you enjoyed! Also, just for a fun fact - this originally had Harper hiding in the bathroom and calling Abe, but that idea got cut once I got deeper into writing the scenes between her and her parents. So, really, it doesn't give anything to the story for you to know that - it's just an amusing mental image for me, so I thought I'd share.


End file.
